Rockstar Blames Lack of Celebrities in GTA Games on “Big Egos” of A-Listers

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Do you remember Samuel Jackson in San Andreas as Tenpenny? That’s not the only time Rockstar had a big name in their games. Since Vice City had Burt Reynolds as well. But why don’t we see celebrities in GTA anymore though?

The reason for this apparently, is because Rockstar no longer wants to deal with the big egos of the celebrities. Dan Houser recounted a heated argument he had with Burt Reynolds over the direction of Vice City. Of course, he brought up the legendary actor in a respectful manner due to his recent passing.

We don’t bring in name actors anymore because of their egos and, most important of all, because we believe we get a better sense of immersion using talented actors whose voices you don’t recognize.

He also mentioned issues with Chuck D during the production of San Andreas. Houser recounted how rap artists tend to be perfectionists regarding doing everything the right way. Thus he and Chuck had a lot of creative differences over the voice acting sessions of the game.

This is why you don’t see any big celebrities in GTA anymore. I mean there weren’t any in GTA V. Yeah, those names are big now though, but they weren’t at the time of GTA V’s production.

Steven Ogg has been doing really well after the popularity caused by his portrayal of Trevor Phillips. We’ve seen him in the Walking Dead and Better call Saul since then, playing characters that often remind us of our favorite GTA psychopath.

We do have the legendary Graham Greene in Red Dead Redemption 2 though. So that’s a big celebrity in GTA. Houser shared his take on Greene’s involvement as well

The government is coming down on him hard. He’s losing his rights as an independent king, and he’s a gentle soul in that violent world.

While we do miss celebrities in GTA like Samuel Jackson screaming “MOTHERFUCKER” at the player characters. It’s probably best for Rockstar to have their studio in harmony rather than discord. We’ve already seen controversies surrounding Rockstar’s workplace.